


He Sees Me

by Malecfan09



Series: Being seen by the one you love [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Acceptance, Boyfriends, Caring Alec Lightwood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Hurt Magnus Bane, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Magnus Bane Deserves Nice Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:22:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29777493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malecfan09/pseuds/Malecfan09
Summary: Magnus realizes that Alec can really see him, the man behind the personna.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Being seen by the one you love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2190927
Comments: 18
Kudos: 80





	He Sees Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [s_a_b_i_n_e](https://archiveofourown.org/users/s_a_b_i_n_e/gifts).



> @S_a_b_i_n_e whose work I am a great fan of and who unknowingly influenced my writing style, thank you. 💜
> 
> Big thanks also to my beta @lilyofwalley who is such a great support 😘💜 check out her fics too.
> 
> None of the characters are mine, of course, they belong to the great Cassandra Clare. Any mistakes are mine alone and I own them completely.

Magnus is old. He knows that. He has countless memories to remind him of the fact. But when he looks at himself in the mirror…well, he doesn’t look old. He still has the face of a 21 year old, his skin smooth and creaseless. His make-up, always done impeccably, hides the few little flaws he has picked up over the years, though that isn’t the reason he wears it. He has convinced himself that make-up is a part of him, essential to whom he is. It is his armour defending him from a world of hate. It has become _him_. He _is_ kohl-lined eyes, rainbow-coloured eye-shadow, tinted, glossy lips, spiky, coloured hair and glitter, lots of glitter. It hides a life lived longer than even he cares to remember, touched with shadows, metered with pain, covered with sass and flirty remarks. This is Magnus Bane. Free-wheeling bi-sexual. Eternally 21.

So when Alexander Gideon Lightwood enters his world with legs that go on forever, a mop of unkempt dark hair, hazel eyes to drown in, a certain innocence about life and shooting arrows like some kind of Greek God, Magnus is shaken to his core. He suddenly feels all of his hundreds of years while at the same time feeling like a teenager again. His heart beats out of his chest, he feels like he can’t breathe, he gets tingles down his spine. None of his thousands of relationships over his long and active life have prepared him for this assault on his mind and his senses. He feels as if something inside him has been unlocked and suddenly the world has restarted. As if he has been given a second chance to live his life better, with more colour, with more…life.

He has no idea what to do now. How to proceed. It is as if all the manuals on life that he invented throughout his long history have suddenly become superfluous, meaningless. He is faced with the enigma that is Alexander Lightwood, a shadowhunter, from a race that sees all others as inferior, a killer of demons but with a heart that would protect all those he loves, who would turn the world upside down in order to do that. Who would destroy the very ground he stands on to save those he considers his family. He has never experienced anything quite like Alexander Lightwood in all his long years and he really _doesn’t_ know how to proceed.

His life has added meaning now, coloured by a gorgeous, sexy shadowhunter. He now cares about more than just the next caffeine fix, the next beautiful necklace or the next party rave. Okay, he has always cared about the Downworlders, his people, those he does everything in his power to protect. But it was going through the motions, no longer a passion, nearly a chore. Life had sucked the life out of him. Alexander Lightwood, bringing the light from his name into Magnus’s life, has changed all that.

Magnus is used to seeing the world through muted colours; anger and angst, pain and suffering. Any joy he ever had was erased by a constant stream of rejections and never being enough or even being too much. He learnt to accept a world where everything was dull or washed out. Alexander changed that so rapidly, so fundamentally that he is still trying to adjust to a rainbow world, to living again. To a man who accepts him for who he is, for being enough and never too much. He still feels awe at being able to cuddle in the mornings and being able to remove his make-up at night without fear of criticism. His world is bright and sparkly when he takes off his glamour, shows his cats-eyes and hears that they are beautiful. There are not enough colours in the universe to describe how it feels when he is told that he is everything, that he is Alexander’s world.

Unsurprisingly, it is Alexander who shows him the way. Alexander who sees through the flirting and the sass, the make-up and the clothes. Alexander who, with one intense, penetrating gaze, cuts through the façade he has built around his heart. Alexander who gives him his strength when his magic is low, jumps in front of demons for him, cares about his wellbeing and his mental health. Alexander who watches him while he selects his jewelry for the day, who paints his nails for him when his magic is low, who smiles at him as if he hung the moon and the stars. Alexander who sees _him_ , Magnus Bane, in all his painful, crooked glory. Who won’t let him hide, won’t let him flee, won’t let him find excuses. Alexander _sees_ him and he accepts him and he loves him and Magnus can’t do anything but love him back.

**Author's Note:**

> I’d love to know what you think.


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